Nucleolar organiser regions in normal, hyperplastic, and neoplastic endometria.
Nucleolar organiser regions (NORs) can be visualised by a silver stain that shows NOR-associated proteins as black intranuclear dots (AgNORs). NORs are loops of DNA that transcribe to ribosomal RNA, and the number of AgNORs is thought to reflect cellular proliferative activity. A study of AgNOR counts in normal, hyperplastic, and neoplastic endometria is reported. The highest AgNOR counts were found in normal proliferative endometrium and in well-differentiated endometrioid adenocarcinomas that were invading the myometrium. A mean AgNOR count of greater than 9 in curettage material from an atypical proliferative lesion of the endometrium is highly suggestive of an invasive neoplasm.
Wilkinson
N
N
Department of Pathology, St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, England.
Buckley
C H
CH
Chawner
L
L
Fox
H
H
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004714:Endometrial Hyperplasia / Q000473:pathology*; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000473:pathology*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*